Does online teaching strategy matter: exploring the effect of online teaching strategies on students' ambidextrous innovation capacities based on the online teaching situation in China

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic stimulated a heated dispute about the quality of higher education through online teaching in China. Based on constructivism theory and self-regulation theory, this study examines the influence of diversified online teaching strategies on students' innovation capacities by questionnaire surveys. The sample included 367 students from 29 full-time regular universities in the mainland, including undergraduate and postgraduate students. The results show that online teaching strategies have a significant positive association with students' ambidextrous innovation capacities. Specifically, the teaching strategies combination constructed by social identification strategies and case guidance is conducive to the formation of exploitative innovation capacity during online teaching. The social participation strategies and flipped classroom are conducive to forming the students' exploratory innovation capacity. In further research, social participation strategy has a significant positive impact on students' ambidextrous innovation capacities for students with higher participation willingness. However, social identification strategies are helpful for the cultivation of ambidextrous innovation capacities for students with lower willingness to participate. Based on the empirical results, this study proposes the online teaching strategies matrix based on social presence theory and social identity theory to provide conducive guidance for improving students' innovation capacities.